What, If Any, Is the Added Value of Human Rights in the Context of Environmental Protection?

Abstract

In last decades, the protection of the environment become the key issue within the international community. Actually, the great concerns refer to the different types of environmental degradation, including pollution, water shortage, natural disasters due to deforestation, disposal of toxic and dangerous wastes and products, climate change and others, which can have a negative effect on human health and well-being, leading to millions annual deaths and billions of cases of diseases. Therefore, these facts clearly indicate the close linkages between environmental protection and the enjoyment of human rights. However, the relationship between human rights and environmental protection in international law is far from simple or straightforward. Accordingly, this paper will discuss different approaches to the relationship between human rights and the environment, consider the reasons for viewing environmental protection as a human rights issue and other important issues which can help to establish that human rights and environmental protection have close relationships and interlinked with each other.

Keywords: Environmental Protection, Human Rights, Sustainable Development, Universal Declaration of Human Rights